With all the Sad Dad™ games that have cropped up in recent years, many have rightfully been asking: "Where are all the video game mums at?". Well, what if I told you that Swedish indie studio Might and Delight have been putting mums at the centre of their games since 2013? Yup, elephant mums in Shelter 3, Lynx mums in Shelter 2, and the OG badass badger mum in Shelter 1. Sure it’s kinda terrible that the only major rep mums are getting in video games is in the form of Might and Delight’s animal tales, but I’ll honestly take any story about motherhood I can get my paws on.
As much as I love Shelter 2 (less so Shelter 3, unfortunately), Shelter 1 holds a special place in my heart, mostly because no other animal-focused survival game has come even remotely close to claiming the coveted title of "most brutal animal sim that made me ugly cry."
]]>The folks who've brought you all those cute animal parent games: Shelter, Shelter 2, Paws, Meadow and the lot, revealed last year that they have something new in the works (aside from the planned Shelter 3). Might and Delight's "tiny MORPG" is called Book Of Travels and is planned as a "unique social roleplaying experience" somewhat in the vein of the studio's multiplayer experiments in Meadow. After being successfully crowdfunded, they are looking forward to beta testing starting this summer and an early access release for the autumn.
]]>Announcing a new game on April 1st seems like a foolish prospect to me, but Might And Delight reckon that now is the best time to unveil Shelter 3 to the world, due for release in 2020. While the first two games focused on the fragility of life as a badger and lynx respectively, this time the player has a big role to play - an elephant. You'll be leading their herd through the jungle and across the plains, and protecting the young from predators. It's also a look at a more social breed of animal, with the previous two games being solitary, tense stories. Below, the announcement trailer.
]]>Utomik! Sounds like a stiff drink, but no. Utomik is a subscription-based games service that launched yesterday, angling to be ‘Netflix for games’ (sound familiar?) It’s currently offering a library of approximately 750 games for either $7 or $10 per month, depending on whether you want to share the account with your little sister or not. I signed up and took a stroll through its library, fingering a few tomes here and there. And while it was fast and performed well, there wasn’t a lot I wanted to play. It’s less Netflix for games and more “Spotify for older games you already own or don’t want”.
]]>Shelter and its sequel starred animal mothers on serious missions, trying to escort their children to safety through hostile lands. They're lovely-looking games but, y'know, a bit grim. Meadow [official site], the latest game from creators Might and Delight, takes those adorable animals into a safer, sillier space. It's a multiplayer sandbox where everyone just larks about. It sounds a lot like Tale of Tales's magical deer playground The Endless Forest, though with new animals taking the fun to the skies and waters. If you fancy seeing what animal parents get up to after their kids leave home (or get eaten by eagles), it's only £2.
]]>Pip once speculated that Might & Delight's upcoming Meadow [official site] might be a game in which you play as a mommy meadow nurturing a litter of baby meadows, keeping in line with Shelter's tradition. While that is a game I would certainly be interested in, it seems Might & Delight has a different vision for their latest project.
Unlike Shelter 1 and 2, Meadow seems to be less about struggling to keep your cubs from succumbing to a nasty demise, and more about making friends. Lynx walk side-by-side with fox and deer in blissful harmony. Sure, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the real world, but Meadow is all about exploring and the social experience. Might & Delight heralds the game as a sort of nature playground.
]]>Might And Delight [official site] - the studio behind animal parenting sims Shelter and Shelter 2 have been busy teasing a thing called "Meadow".
Given their email on the subject consisted solely of a Shelter-esque image and the words "Come one. Come all!" there's not much to go on but I figured enough people were fond of the series that this was newsworthy.
I have also come up with some theories as to what the teaser is actually teasing:
]]>I enjoy cuteness tinged with tragedy, but there is a certain line past which I feel the need to be mean and cynical to balance things up a bit. I mean, if you're going to be tugging at my heart strings and squeezing my eyes for some juice, at least be decent about it.
Paws [official site], a standalone spinoff from Shelter 2, came out today, together with an "interactive book" called "The Lonesome Fog." You will never believe how many lynx cubs die a tragic, painful death in this new story trailer!
]]>The Shelter games by Might and Delight have always looked gorgeous, but the prospect of me mothering idiot babies - even baby animals - sounds more like the pitch for a dire family movie than a plan for a pleasant afternoon. But I do adore that art! So I'm certainly interested in the Shelter 2 spin-off they announced today, an "adventure platformer" named Paws [Steam page]. Rather than care for a wee lynx, you play as one trying to find its way home. Have a look in this trailer:
]]>"Pip, I don't want to stereotype, but a trailer titled 'Cuteness in Shelter 2' seems right up your street," said Alice, stereotyping furiously.
Thing is, this is a stereo-typo because I am not there for anything cute or parental. I'm interested in Shelter 2 [official site] because I want to defeat my cubs and to see how the savage indifference of nature manifests. Further reading of this news story will contain spoilers for Shelter...
]]>Surprise! Badger-lovers Might & Delight, they of the lovely/heartbreaking Shelter, just put out a new game. And, er, it's a shmup. But it's OK: The Blue Flamingo is a shmup with a lounge music soundtrack and hand-crafted models. 32 feet worth of handcrafted model, specifically, which was then photographed and imported into the game. Even the explosion effects come from filming fireworks.
Quick impressions plus some footage below, jazz-chums.
]]>The Spare Set is a free Twine game, commissioned and hosted by the UK homelessness charity Shelter, and written by Rob 'Black Crown' Sherman. It's the story of a woman arriving home on a day when her life and that of her family is set to change dramatically. Based on the origin of the project, it's easy to anticipate the general thrust of the narrative but the game's interest lies in many tales rather than one. The house is a repository of memories, as houses tend to be, and I found one thread that resonated like a nightmare. It involves a spider called Jerome and is ludicrously similar to an experience in my own life. As for the rest, more thoughts below.
]]>From a certain perspective, Shelter's badger kits were a resource one could strategically burn to skip a difficult situation. A small supply of hearts, continues, bullets, or smartbombs one shouldn't waste but can afford to lose a few of. I'm glad Cara is in the USA right now or she'd ruddy well throttle me, and I suspect John might call me a monster too. Those badgers were their babies. They cared for them and feared for them and mourned them. Now Shelter 2 has new tricks up its sleeve to foster even more familial fondness, developers Might and Delight have revealed.
]]>I thought Shelter was a frustrating experience about shepherding an idiot brood of badgers through bad pathfinding and poorly signposted objectives. It's wholly possible that you're a far better person than I, and you saw in it the same touching story of parenthood as Cara and John. If so, prepare to get broody: developers Might And Delight have announced Shelter 2.
Even I have to admit it looks very pretty. Extremely teasery trailer below.
]]>A badger simulation. PC games! Shelter, in which you are tasked with raising young badger cubs in the cruel confines of nature, is out now. While clearly I can't better Lucy's world exclusive review from last week, I can only hope to add my own thoughts. Here's wot I think:
]]>While felis catus is the official spirit animal of RPS, and the endless bear its deity, there is always a soft spot* for the badger. There has been a recent groundswell (pun!) of support that can't be ignored. That's all because of Shelter, Might & Delight's mightily delightful game that somehow transposes all those icky human feelings of family and love, as well as general concerns about feeding and care, into a game about badger survival. It's out now, and there's a launch trailer below.
]]>We've got the world's first review of Shelter, the compellingly gorgeous and overwhelming badger simulation. By a kitten. It's below.
]]>I am always counting my cubs. Ever since we left the sett, I have been looking behind me and counting my cubs. One, two, three, four... and a sudden panic that I have lost one, until he bounds up from whatever turnip he was investigating to join us. A sudden flash of anger happens in me. ‘You had me so worried,’ I want to say to him. ‘Never stray from us again. You never know what might happen.’ And then I worry that when I was young, I might have made my mother feel this way, and I feel ashamed because at the time I didn’t care.
Shelter, you are turning me into a mother, and until now I have not had one maternal feeling in my body.
]]>I kind of wish that all games were Shelter. Instead of starring bald space marines toting guns the size of mountain lions, they should exclusively be about mother badgers dutifully marching their squalling, squeaking babies to a new home. Not-lucrative-enough-anymore 18-34-year-old straight male demographic be damned, that's the next generation of our medium. Not convinced? Then burrow beneath the break for a video of two Might and Delight devs discussing and showing off the game. Sadly, they never really badger one another, or else my headline would've been a lot better.
]]>Humans react differently to animal violence. I imagine I've seen about 200 on-screen deaths over the past few days, but at no point did I feel bad or empathise with the opposition. But every second of the Shelter's trailer, where a mother badger must protect her tiny cubs, was like a force choke right in the feels. That hurts all over, let me tell you. I'm not even sure I'll be able to play it given what it did to my heart rate. The horrible sense of death, of Mother Nature's cruel indifference, the looming awfulness of it all. It's is right here in a stealth game about badgers. Developers Might and Delight better be offering hugs in the comment section below.
]]>Sometimes, when Countryfile is on the telly and I'm lamenting the concrete meadows to which I am bound, I think of the wolves that once roamed Albion's forests and I weep. None of that's true, of course - I'm too busy watching Bogart-wrinkled noir to let Countryfile invade my screen. I do miss Wolf though. Not enough games show an interest in animal behaviour, and the reds and greens of nature. Three cheers for Shelter, then, which casts the player as a badger with a family to care for: "As the mother of a litter of cubs you are forced out from familiar and safe surroundings to find new shelter in a beautiful, but dangerous world. The harsh reality of nature plays a pivotal role in the game whilst at the same time Shelter aims to pay a homage to the great outdoors and all its imposing beauty." Trailer in the den, below..
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